The Death Wind
by LoneRanger19
Summary: Naruto and Jiraiyah have yet to come back after their three year training. They have been gone for 10 years. Now the world is about to change, and at the center of it is Akutsuki, Konoha, and the Death Wind.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in the show. They belong to Kishimoto.

Authors Note: Hi this is my first fanfic, I'm nervous about it so please bear with me. However I love reviews, good ones and bad ones. After all that's the only way I'll how to be a better writer. So please read and review, thanks it is much appreciated,

Konoha is of the strongest of the hidden villages. Ten years ago, a boy by the name of Naruto left with his sensei Jiraiyah to go train. However it was supposed to be a trip for Naruto to train and become stronger. After three years they were supposed to return, after the fourth year, Tsunade sent ANBU to search for them only to come out empty handed in the end. After two years they stopped trying. Another four year has gone by, and still no sign of those two figures during this period and the name Naruto was becoming a mere memory for the people of Konoha. Only few people actually remembered that name. The Hokage and Rookie Nine along with a few other people were the only ones who actually remembered who Naruto was. However on this day, the tenth year, third month and 22nd day after Naruto's departure, an event occurred that changed the course of the ninja world.

"HELP ME!"

The man continued to run as kunais flew after him. The only thing that was on his mind was praying for a saviour.

"HELP ME," he kept on shouting as he ran through the forest. He looked behind him to make sure that the ninjas where as far as possible,

'_Why me'_ he thought, '_I didn't even mean to do anything harmful_,' as he continued to run. He felt the pain in his legs that came from the fatigue of running for two days straight, but he could not stop, if he did, it would for sure kill him because these men wanted him dead for saying what he said.

_"All I said was that HE is the strongest ninja in the world and they got all mad, what's up with these rock ninjas? Why do they care about him? And what gives the right to try to kill me? A man should be allowed to speak his mind in this bloody world!"_

Then all of a sudden, without realizing it, the old man tripped and fell into an open area, he groaned from the pain but without stopping he tried to get up and continue running, he realized however, he was surrounded by the 12 ninjas. His mind frantically searched for a way out. There was nothing he could do, the ninjas wanted him dead and they were going to get their wish, he was a peddler after all and knew nothing about fighting. However for some odd reason, the ninjas were hesitant to attack him. They kept on mumbling something about trespassing and entering somewhere where they shouldn't be and kept on checking behind them for someone to appear. However, the leader of the group, a tall shinobi with a muscular frame and an eye patch quickly quashed all of these thoughts by saying,

"Let's just kill this old man and we will be out in no time. Then he'll learn who the strongest ninja in the world is." The old man shut his eyes just as the ninja was about to throw the kunai, he heard a voice call out

"Hey you Iwa-nins are trespassing, and harming an old man under the protection of Konoha, that's punishable by law of the 23rd treaty of Zegna and the reward is death for you all."

The old man opened his eyes and saw the leader of the rock shinobi have his eyes roll back and he fall down dead. His followers looked around frantically searching for the person that just killed the leader without leaving a mark; they heard the trees rustling behind them. Just as they're about to look, a man appeared in the middle of them. He carried a long black staff with golden tips with a thin black beard. He was dressed in all black, with bandages on his shins and forearms, he had a dark blue scarf around his neck and he had the tail of it draped down in front of him to his waist. His dark hair was kept up by a blue headband with the symbol of the leaf etched in it. Without waiting for them to react in a fluid motion, He had managed to knock out all 11 people and kill them with a one-handed silent seal. He did this without even breaking a sweat and it hardly took even a minute. This man had an aura of power emanate from him that could be compared to _him_, and when he turned to look at the peddler, the peddler realized to his shock that this saviour of his was no more than 18 years old. However, the amount of power that was coming from him was awe inspiring and not possible for someone so young. The young man walked up to peddler, took out his hand and said,

"My name is Konohamaru of Konohagakure, is there anything I can do to help you Old Man?"

The Peddler sat up and remembered the name Konoha is a recent discussion he heard and said, "I am Negana, the peddler, and I realize that I have some news for you that could benefit you."

Konohamaru gazed, at him while scratching his beard he inquired, "What is this news you wish to tell us that could benefit us?"

Negana replied, "I am a peddler I gather information and sell it to people who need it, however since you saved my life I can repay you for giving some information for free, this information is probably useful for your Hokage only. Basically there are ninjas for you to worry about that wish I think to harm you."

Konohamaru looked at Negana, and then said, "Tell me everything, now then" Negana snorted, "Listen I want a favor first, I want to stay in Konoha until it is safe for me to leave, until then I'll give you any information you want."

Konohamaru thought about it before replying, "Fine, come with me, first I'll take you to the Hokage then I'll get you settled in."

******************************

Konoha is very beautiful; very few hidden villages can even say that they can come close to Konoha in any aspect that has to offer. The villagers are nice, scenery is beautiful, and the atmosphere is gentle, and the ninjas are strong. They were led by an amazing Hokage that always smiled and cared deeply about the welfare of village and wanted only the best for it. However, not many people knew the truth behind the Hokage, despite giving off a happy image to the public, she was very depressed inside. For a very long time she yearned for the return of the two ninjas she cared about most. As she sat there on her desk stamping her seal on the long list of papers, only two thoughts were on her mind, the first was Naruto and Jiraiyah, and the second thing was sake and gambling. She decided that now that she was about to finish all her files, she would head out to the casino to gamble for a bit, before Shizune noticed she was gone. Just as she was about to pull on the doorknob to leave, there was a knock. She opened the door to see an old man with lots of grey hair, scraggly beard and colourful eyes; he was wearing an old brown coat. Lots of pockets, his pants were torn and his sandals are very old, he looked extremely tired. Beside him stood Konohamaru, the captain of the famous "Konohamaru Corps" that consisted of him, Moegi, the medic-nin, Udon, the genjutsu specialist, and Hyuuga Hanabi, they were the best team in Konoha for the last two years. Konohamaru was also considered the lead Jounin of Konoha along with Sakura and Neji. In terms of fighting ability he was the best Konoha had to offer, and he was probably the next in line to become the Hokage. He however did not want to become one as of yet. He felt that he was not the next in line; rather someone else does deserve to come before him and for that reason alone, he refused to accept the position.

"Tsunade-Sama, this man has a lot of important things to tell you. Or so, he says." Tsunade looked at the old man, and said,

"Tell me what you have to say."

The Negana then said, "I fear for Konoha. There are two people out there that want to possibly cause harm to it and it is necessary that you guys prepare for them because they are very strong. And I have yet to see people that can even come close to their strengths and make even other hidden villages tremble when they see them. Their names strike fear in the hearts of the Rock Nins and Mist Nin. The Mizukage gave a clear order to anyone who sees them to feel on sight for even a second delay will lead to their death"

Tsunade frowned and thought, '_Who could this be? There very few people that actually have this type of strength enough to make other villages scared and make the Mizukage give such an order._ She gazed at the man wondering maybe he was lying in order to get some money or benefits from them, and then asked,

"Why are you telling us this?"

To her surprise, it was Konohamaru that replied, "He is a peddler and peddlers sell information. However I just saved his life so he is giving this information for free and in turn also I am giving him a place to stay so that we can get all the answers we need from him."

Tsunade pondered over what Konohamaru said before turning to Negana again and asked, "Tell me, if you were to compare him to someone, who would be, try to compares him to someone that Konoha knows."

The man thought about it and then said, "Because I am a peddler. I hear the news that spreads in the land, and from what I was told this man defeated the famous Konoha missing-nin, Uchiha Itachi in a battle but couldn't kill him because Itachi managed to flee in time. Also, I hear that Gaara was defeated by him when they were younger."

The Hokage was shocked, to defeat Itachi is something crazy, and there is no one in this village that could stand up to Itachi, not even Konohamaru.

'_This shinobi must be extremely strong,'_ she pondered. "_Maybe I should send Gaara a letter and ask them who this __man__ is. How could it be that such a person could be alive, and Konoha had not heard anything about him,"_ Tsunade thought.

She looked at him and said, "Old man, you can stay here for as long as you need, but tomorrow I have to speak to you and find out more about this danger. You can go for now and when you go outside, there is a lady, speak to her, and tell her that I said to take you to the hotel where you will be staying. Moreover, take this seal with you, so they know that you are not lying."

Negana took the seal from her and thanked her, while saying, "I assure you my lady. Tomorrow I will give you the full description of the man and his partner so that you may prepare for him the best you can, for I hope that Konoha stays this way, the beautiful village that is, for as long as time lasts."

With that, Negana stepped outside and left, leaving only Konohamaru with Tsunade staring at him. Tsunade realized that the only Konohamaru would have to deal with this person seeing that he was the strongest. She looked at him and said, "What did you think?"

He glanced at the door before replying, "Well, for one thing, we know that this person is not a _bad person_,"

Tsunade stared at him in utter disbelief and said, "Do you not realize what the man just said, this missing-nin wants to destroy Konoha. How can you say that he is not bad?"

Konohamaru looked at her calmly and said, "What I mean by being bad is by being part of Akutsuki, not only that but I have a feeling that I know who it is, and this was expected from him for a long time. And I think that you know who he is as well, because they're only very few people that fit that description."

Tsunade looked at Konohamaru with interest, how could he know who this man was? There are thousand of ninjas in the world, yet he believes that he knows this man, she looked at him, giving him a hard stare, she said, "Tell me who you think it is?"

With a straight voice Konohamaru were replied, "It's probably Uchiha Sasuke, he is easily the only person that I know that had the potential to defeat Itachi, and not only that he had fought Gaara before, and practically beat him in the Chunin exams. Not only that, he probably realized the true story behind the massacre of his people, that is a good enough reason for Sasuke to hate Konoha and want to destroy it. As far as who he is with, that could be anybody, but it doesn't matter because the main threat would be Sasuke himself."

Tsunade was surprised, Sasuke had the ability to defeat Itachi at not only that he did defeat Gaara before, added to the fact that the elders of Konoha convinced Itachi to massacre his clan, it would only be natural for him to want to take revenge. Seeing that he is a person who considers himself an avenger and his type of people never have the thirst of revenge quenched. "What do we do?"

"We prepare for him. That's pretty obvious isn't it?" Both Konohamaru and Tsunade turned towards the window to see who it was, and there he was leaning against the window with the orange book in his hand in the standard jounin clothes with the mask covering his face and his hitai covering one of his eyes. Hatake Kakashi gave the peace sign and reply to their stares with, "Yo!"

Konohamaru looked at Kakashi and asked him, "Can you take him on? Sasuke that is, after all, you have the sharingan also. You've taken it to the next level, if there is anybody who can do this, it would be you."

Kakashi walked over to Konohamaru, he looked at them up and down for replying, "There are very few people who could defeat Sasuke, in fact the only person in the world that I know that could defeat Sasuke is not even in this village, he never gave up and that would allow him to defeat Sasuke and be able to bring him back to convince him to stay in Konoha."

Tsunade looked at Kakashi and realized who he was talking about, and she looked down in sadness, "It's been ten years, though, we don't know if they will ever come back or if they are even alive. Maybe, Akutsuki finally caught up to them and captured him," She mumbled.

To this Konohamaru frowned, then he smiled and said, "Don't worry Tsunade, he is alive, and they could not have captured him, because in order to do that they would have to seal Gaara first, and since Gaara has not been caught, we know for a fact that he is still out there and there is one thing we know for sure. When he comes back he'll be really strong."

Kakashi looked at Tsunade and asked her, "What about Sakura? After all, she was trained by you,"

Tsunade replied, "Even though she realizes that Sasuke is a bad person, and she no longer loves him, I do not think she has the ability to fight. She is good, and she'll probably be on the team to help defeat Sasuke. After all, she is very good Medic-nin, she is as good as me and sometimes even better. However, it's just that she does not have the necessary skills to the defeat Sasuke, not only that, but she still believes that only Naruto could defeat him. And for that reason alone, she continues still to wait for him."

"Very well then, well at least I know that Konohamaru and I will be busy for the next little while, I assume Tsunade that means neither of us can be taking any more missions, because were going to need all the training we can get, in order to prepare for Sasuke the best that we can. In any case, I better head off: I have some things to do."

And with that Kakashi poof out of the office, "He's probably just trying to find a new place to go read the book," Konohamaru grumbled, he then looked at the Hokage and reassured her by smiling and saying,

"Don't worry; this is Konoha, no matter what happens, no matter how many wars, no matter how many attacks, Konoha will still stand, why? Because we have the Will of Fire, after all, this is a good time to prove that I'm worthy of being the Hokage of this village."

And with that, he walked out of the room leaving Tsunade to her own thoughts. _But I only plan to become Hokage after you Naruto, which I know for sure._ As he looked outside you realize it was getting late was time to go to bed, without further delay he made seals and disappeared.

Halfway across the village, a young woman in her 20s, dressed in a pink nightgown with pink hair and emerald green eyes stared at a picture of four individuals. Three children and a man, she stared at the boy was dressed in orange, scowling at the boy beside him. She smiled at him, realizing how much she missed him, and realizing how much he meant to her, however, now it was too late, she had no idea where he was or when he would come back. All she knew was that if he ever did come back. She would tell him the things that she had wanted to tell them for the last ten years. She knew where ever was he was, he was getting stronger, whether it be for her, to bring him back, or to fulfill his dream to become Hokage, all she knew that when he did come back, hopefully, she would have become a better person: So that he would be proud of her when he met her again. _Come home soon Naruto, come home soon please._ And with that Sakura put down the picture and went to bed dreaming in the land of dreams all the good memories, she had with Team Seven. Halfway across the world, two men lay on the ground getting ready to go to sleep, the younger of the two sneezed, he then stared at the old man with white hair, sending him a silent plea, the white-haired man chuckled and said,

"Don't worry, we will be there soon."

A/N

So what do you guys think? Please let me know.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note:

Thanks for the previous reviews, they helped a lot. Hopefully this chapter is better than the last one. Just to clarify, there is no pairing as of yet for Naruto, and Sakura does not love Naruto the way people think she does. All of these "feelings" will be explained later on.

Sakura took a huge sigh of relief; she had just finished a 10 hour shift at the hospital with two gruelling surgeries. The first one was a civilian that need a bone marrow transplant, and the second was a shinobi that had fragmented pieces of metal in his chest and legs from a previous mission. Sakura felt that she needed to do something else before she went home; after all there was nothing to do at home except sleep. As she was washing her hands, she heard the loud eccentric voice of Ino calling her to come somewhere,

"Sakura, why don't you come with me to have some dinner together? After all, you've been avoiding me the last couple of days and I do owe you a treat. Let's go have some ramen it's been a while since we had any," Sakura stared at Ino as she dried her hands on a towel nearby; Ino dressed in her purple suit had things very easy for her. Her team with Shikamaru and Chouji along with Asuma had been together for the last 10 years with no serious problems. Because of that, Ino took many things for granted. It wasn't a big deal to go eat ramen at the ramen shop for her. However for Sakura, it was a constant reminder of _him_. Whenever she walked by, she always hoped to one day see him there wolfing down bowls and bowls of his favourite ramen. She sighed again realizing that dreams won't change anything and refusing to eat there won't bring him back, she turned to Ino and said,

"Fine Ino, I'll come with you." As they walked down the road towards the ramen shop, Sakura got to enjoy the peaceful breeze that Konoha had to offer. It was one of the best things in this village; the wind was so peaceful here, as if to reassure her that everything is going to be all right in the end. When they got to the ramen shop, they saw an old man with a nasty jacket with multiple pockets and an old torn up pant, he looked undecided with what he wanted to buy.

"Do you need help sir?" Ino asked, for she felt that it was her civic duty to help and get gossip from any person she finds. The man was startled when he heard the voice turned around to see two pretty women staring at him, it was the first time he had seen two women this pretty, the first one had blond hair. A purple top, along with purple skirt with fishnet under it, she also had fishnet on her elbows and knees. The second girl had unique hair, for one thing. It was bright bubblegum pink; she had emerald eyes that showed both a gentle yet strong character. She wore a pink top with a beige skirt that covered her black shorts that came up to her thighs. She also was wearing knee-high black boots and carried a short dagger in the back of her spine. When Negana, managed to untwist his tongue, he said, "My dear young ladies, do you know, what is good on this menu in terms of a nourishing meal?"

The blonde replied, "Everything on the menu is good, however, you can't go wrong with the Miso ramen." Negana then replied, "My name is Negana, would you like to join me for this meal?" Both girls looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders before replying, "I'm Ino," "and I'm Sakura," said the blonde girl and the pink girl, respectively.

As they sat down, and began their meals, both Sakura and Ino found out that Negana was a peddler from outside and carried very valuable information with him which he had collected. Sakura was itching to ask Negana whether or not he met Naruto. Ino noticing that Sakura was biting her bottom lip knew that Sakura was desperately trying to reach a decision in her mind; whenever Sakura was in a state of confusion she would always bite her bottom lip and frown. Ino then turned to the peddler and said, "Excuse me Negana but what exactly do you do, I mean I why do you collect information?"

Negana after swallowing a bite of his ramen before replying, "I collect information all around the world and sell it to other people as a living." Ino then asked them, "Have you met any interesting shinobi in your travels?" Negana thought about that question for a while. He wondered whether it be worthwhile to talk about this shinobi that wanted to cause harm to Konoha. He figured that he would not want to worry the two young women with such issues; after all, that boy Konohamaru would take of it he said. He then replied, "There are very few ninjas in this world better and more interesting than the people in Konoha, so if I tell you about them, you would not be interested."

Negana noticed that the pink girl was staring at him intently, as if wanting him to give a different answer, or maybe wanted to ask him a different question, but did not know how to ask it. So Negana, being a wise one that he felt he was, turned to her and said,

"Sakura my dear, tell me, do you have a question you want to ask me?"

Sakura looked startled at the fact that Negana was so forward when he asked the question. _'How did he know that I wanted to ask a question? Can he read minds? Or was I that obvious? Maybe, it might just be worth it to ask him.'_

Sakura then nodded her head and asked, "Negana, Have you seen the man who has hair like Ino and piercing blue eyes? You would have probably seen him with a tall, white-haired man."

Negana thought about it, and then he realized that he saw someone with that description many years ago, there was a boy in a hospital in the bird country; unfortunately the boy wasn't in the best health when he saw him. He took a deep breath before answering, "Aye, I saw a man with white hair with a boy with blond hair and blue eyes, however, by any chance, would you say that the white man can be described as... a pervert?"

Sakura's eyes lit up. She immediately answered, "Yes, of course! Where did you see them? And when did you last see them?" Negana put his head down and stayed silent for a minute. Sakura began to worry. She put her hand on his shoulder before softly asking him, "Please can you tell me what happened?" He looked at her for a long moment and then quietly said, "The last time I saw that boy, he was in the hospital with blood pouring out of his chest and stomach and he looked worse for wear. The old white man looked completely distraught, however I do not know if that boy survived, but I do know, that I have yet to see someone so beaten up as that young boy. But I do pray that he does make it."

When he looked up, Sakura was no longer there. He looked shocked and turned to Ino and saw that she had water coming out of her eyes. He asked her, "What is this boy to you?" She softly replied, "A friend." She then got up, paid for the meal of both her and Sakura, and then walked away. Ino stared in the sky and began to wonder where Sakura was, she wasn't home, she wasn't at the training ground, she wasn't at the hospital, and she wasn't even in the Hokage's office. _'Where could she be?'_ Ino felt bad for Sakura, she did not know how it felt to lose someone close to her, and after all, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Asuma were all still alive. What made it worse is that Naruto was gone for so long, and Sakura never had the chance to apologize to Naruto for bringing upon him _that condition_ which was caused when he tried to bring back Sasuke back for her. Now, Naruto was probably dead somewhere and Jiraiya was too scared to come home to face Tsunade's wrath. If she ever found out that is. Just then, Ino realized where Sakura was, she immediately headed towards the southern part of the village where his apartment once was. After five minutes, Ino found herself on the front door, she opened the door quietly, and then she heard a soft sobbing of Sakura, she slowly walked up behind her and put her hand on Sakura's shoulder as if to reassure her somehow, that it will turn out right in the end. After long moment of time when Sakura's crying stopped, she looked at Ino before saying, "Why is it that whenever we want to do bad, life allows us to do it very easily, and yet whenever we want to do good, life makes it so much harder for us to accomplish it?"

Ino stared at Sakura before replying quietly, "I don't know Sakura, I just don't know"

Negana sat there quietly eating the rest of his ramen. He felt terrible; he can only imagine the pain that those two girls were feeling, especially the pink haired one. When he looked into her eyes, he saw that she cared for that boy so much that that news tore into her heart like a rusted blade trying to remove itself from a wet sponge. Just as he was about to pay, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He slowly turned around in fear of whom it was, however he took a sigh of the release, it was Konohamaru. Konohamaru looked at Negana then asked,

"Are you busy right now?" Negana shook his head as he pulled out the money, he said,

"I was just about to pay these people; do you need anything for me?" Konohamaru then replied, "I need you to speak to someone and tell them about the man that you saw, the man that will try to destroy Konoha?" Negana looked at Konohamaru with intent, his eyes gleaming or so it seemed. He then said, "Okay, then take me right now."

Hatake Kakashi was meditating in the middle of the training ground. He was trying to increase its chakra capacity. He had learnt a new method in which if he trained with this method for four hours a day intensely for five days a week, then meditate for the other two, he could increase its chakra by 1/10 every two months. He had been using this method for the last three years. And so far, the results were quite pleasing; Kakashi could now use the sharingan for much longer time, and was much more effective with it. He even managed to upgrade his sharingan to another level. All of a sudden he felt the presence of two individuals behind him. The first was Konohamaru, and the second was probably old man he had met. Kakashi got up, turned around, and smiled at the old man before stating,

"It's nice to see you, old man." Negana looked at him and felt that this person reminded him, somewhat of a sly creature, somebody who could cause a lot of damage, while hiding the shadows. Negana then said, "My name is Negana and what is yours?" Kakashi then replied, "Hatake Kakashi." Konohamaru then began to speak, "Negana, I want you to tell us all that you know about this person." Negana took a deep breath and collected all the information he heard about regarding this shinobi, he then began reciting, "He traveled with somebody who is the taller one of them and that one had a great amount of power. However, the shorter one is unreal, they both wear capes that covers their whole body and they carry hoods that covers their face. It is said that it is almost impossible to hurt them. They are never in the same place twice, and majority of the other hidden villages are either afraid of them or love them. Their names are not known, but what is known is that the shorter one I think is referred to if I remember correctly as the Death Wind."

Kakashi thought about it, he felt that it could not have been Sasuke, for one thing, Sasuke is not a person who likes to be loved by people nor do things that make people love him. Not only that, Sasuke hardly ever teams up with people, it could be that, somehow, for some reason, that Sasuke is traveling with Orochimaru, but that would not explain, the title that this man was given. Sasuke isn't a wind type; he is a lightning and fire elemental user. Whoever this person is, he must be very strong when it comes to the uses of wind, and because of that fact, he must be a very good combat fighter. Kakashi turned towards Konohamaru, but before he could say anything, he knew that Konohamaru already figured out that this person may not be Sasuke. Konohamaru looked at Kakashi and said,

"This is a very big problem, for one thing, if this person is a wind, neither you nor I could take him, I am an earth elemental person and you are a lightning elemental person. And even though you do know fire techniques, it would not be enough to take a person who seems to be an expert when it comes to the wind." Kakashi shrugged his shoulders and looked at the old man and asked, "Negana, did you ever see the face of this man? Or his friend, did you get at least a glimpse of them? It would be enough for us to know who exactly we are up against."

Negana thought about it for a long time, then he replied by saying, "The only thing I remember from him and it wasn't even me who saw him, or rather, someone else told me was that, the younger man had light eyes, whether they were blue, green, brown, or yellow, I have no idea. I'm sorry could not have been more help." Just as Konohamaru was about to ask another question, he saw in the sky, a hawk with a yellow ribbon attached to his right talon, he looked at Kakashi, who then nodded to him and said,

"Let's go we cannot keep the Hokage waiting." Konohamaru then turned to Negana and said, "Negana, we have to leave right now, so you can go wherever you would like and we will meet up with you later on today, if not tomorrow." And with thatboth shinobi, left to go see what the Hokage wanted.

Tsunade sat at her desk thinking about the impeding danger towards the village. _'Who could this person be'_ she thought, _'was it really Sasuke?'_ She knew that Sasuke was not yet taken over by Orochimaru; because if he had been, then Konoha would not last. For combining those two geniuses together would only create something that may be the something that only the Yondaime could handle. Thinking about the Yondaime caused Tsunade's mind to wander off to his son, Naruto. She had always wanted to tell him who his father was. She knew that he would be happy when he found out; after all, the Yondaime was a hero to this village. Trained by Jiraiya, he destroyed the enemies of Konoha, with his famous jutsu, Hirashin no jutsu. They were very few people who could match up to him; even Orochimaru seemed weak before him. Yet Jiraiya felt that if anybody could surpass the Yondaime, it would be his son Naruto and because of that they left to go train. After all, he mastered his father's technique, the famous rasengan in just one week. Shaking her head, Tsunade realized that she had more important things to deal with, for example, Sasuke. She knew that he would come, when she found out what the council did regarding the Uchiha clan, she was furious. How could the third Hokage even agree to this? Women, children were killed in cold blood by a young boy of his clan, Uchiha Itachi who was ordered to do so by the elders of this village. She could never forgive the counsellors for that, no matter what the justification. It does not give them the right to allow the killing the innocent women and children of the world especially from their own village. Just as she was about to leave she heard a knock at the door, maybe it was Konohamaru asking for something. So she called out and said,

"Enter."

The door opened, and there stood a man who Tsunade hated with all the passion she had, she hated herself for allowing the situation to happen. There he stood, in a black and white robe, with half his face bandaged and with a cane in his hand. He had only eye that was exposed and it looked like an eagle eye that scanned everything, taking everything into it without leave, the tiniest detail did not go unnoticed. "It's been a while Tsunade-hime" Danzo voice felt like ice cold water down her back, yet Tsunade felt that she could not show any sign of weakness especially to this man, so she then also coldly replied, "What do you want Danzo?"

"My, My Tsunade-hime, there is no need to take that tone with me, after all, I'm here to inquire about the danger that is about to occur near Konoha. I hear that there is a very dangerous man that is about to approach Konoha." Tsunade looked startled, but then composed her features quickly. She then calmly replied, "There is no need for you to worry Danzo, for I have the lead Jounin Konohamaru and Sharingan Kakashi on the situation, they will deal with the intruder when he arrives."

Danzo looked at her, analyzing her before saying, "I'm afraid that's not what I think is going to happen, the council feels that it is necessary for someone else, a stronger hand rather, take hold of the situation." Tsunade looked shocked. "And when did the council decide this?" Tsunade demanded, "Right now," Tsunade turned to the door to see the two elders of Konoha, Homura and Koharu. Koharu continued by saying,

"Tsunade, we are allowing Danzo to take charge of the situation which we feel that it is necessary that this intruder is destroyed with the strong force so that the world can see that Konoha is not the village that should be tampered with." Homura then added, "We understand Tsunade that you maybe mad, but you must realize that it is our job to make sure that Konoha stays safe, and we feel that you have not realized the importance the situation for Danzo has told us that this man is The Death Wind. And if that is so, then Konohamaru and Kakashi will not stand a chance against him."

Tsunade stared at them both, for some odd reason she felt uneasy about situation and yet her mind told her to go with it. She then looked up and said, "I agree to the plan decided on one condition however, I want five of my men to be there present as backup just in case anything happens." Koharu readily agreed, "It is fine with us. You may select up to five men to be there present. And if that is all, we will leave."

And with that, Danzo, Koharu and Homura all left at the same time, however, just before he left Danzo turned to her and said, "It is always nice to make deals with you Tsunade."

And with that he was gone. Tsunade fell into a chair, letting out a heavy sigh; she turned to the window and thought about it. Something seemed off, she just couldn't tell what it was. So she then sent a hawk to summon all of Rookie Nine and Team Guy along with Konohamaru at Kakashi and decided to choose the five people to back up Roots. After she sent the hawk she sat back down, poured a glass of sake for herself, and waited patiently for them to come.

Danzo walked down the lonely hallway of the Roots headquarter, he had been waiting for this moment for a very long time. He knew exactly who the Death Wind was, and he had planned to have him dead for a very long time. In fact he was so close to doing so a couple years ago. However thanks to an annoying doctor there, it didn't pan out as it should have. In the end, the Death Wind had yet again managed to survive. But this time he was going to be killed, while Danzo would make sure that Tsunade, and the rest of Konoha would not know about it. He then entered into an open room, where there was a beautiful red carpet. He sat down and waited, after a while he heard the whooshing of men entering, 12 of them to be exact, he looked at all of them and said,

"You all have a new mission, in a few days, the Death Wind and his Sensei will reach these walls of Konoha, I want you to kill and decapitate them. Not only that, you are to make sure that both bodies are hidden away, is that understood?"

One of the Roots shinobi present quietly asked, "Is it really possible to defeat him? After all years training with J..."

Danzo interrupted him, "You **will** kill him, and if you don't, you'll find your head in the sewers of Konoha is that fair?"

All 12 members that were present were silent, and then the shortest one of them who was the youngest said, "Where will he appear from?" Danzo answered, "He will appear from the south western gate. After all, he is coming from Suna." And with that they were all gone. All of them disappeared, preparing themselves for the encounter with The Death Wind.

Tsunade looked at them, all of Rookie Nine along with Team Guy; each one of them was a celebrated individual with many accomplishments in their records. She began speaking to them about the issue, "You may or may not know this, but there is an enemy that is about to come towards Konoha, he is known as The Death Wind. It has been given to Danzo and the Roots to deal with this ninja. However, I am going to send five of you to go as backup and find out what exactly is going on, and just in case they are overwhelmed, you are to help them. These five are, Shikamaru, Shino, Chouji, Sakura, and Neji, you five are to watch out and report to me exactly what happens, is that understood?" Shikamaru was the only one to respond;

"Man this is so troublesome," Tsunade ignored him. Just as she was about to say something else, Konohamaru and Kakashi walked in, "Hokage-sama, why did you call us here, and why are all these people with you?" Konohamaru asked, Tsunade replied, "You and Kakashi have been removed off in dealing with the Death Wind; instead, the Council has decided that Danzo and his men will deal with it. I'm allowed to send five of my people to serve as backup and report to me, therefore I chose these five individuals to go and report."

Konohamaru was shocked, "Why did you agree to Tsunade-sama? Now we know something is fishy is going on if Danzo wants to get his hands on it. This is not good for us to have Danzo involved."

Tsunade been replied, "I know that Konohamaru, however, that is why I'm sending these five people to take care of the situation, because I know that they could handle themselves very well. Seeing as there is nothing more to say, you are all dismissed."

Just as they're all about to leave, Tsunade called out to Sakura and said, "Sakura, you stay."

Sakura hesitated for a moment before standing there, calmly waiting for Tsunade. Tsunade looked at her and gazed intently into her eyes before saying, "What's wrong Sakura?" "There is nothing wrong," Sakura replied quickly.

"Yes there is, you look different today, you've been crying. You've been my student for over 10 years. I think I know when you're sad and I think that I deserve that you tell me if anything is wrong. So, what's going on?"

Sakura stared at the ground, not knowing what to say, she knew that if she said what she was supposed to, Tsunade would be devastated. So, she looked at the Tsunade before replying and said, "I'm just worried that I may have been too late to see the things I wanted to see, and say the things I wanted to say."

And with that Sakura turned around and left leaving Tsunade to her own thoughts.

*************

That night, somewhere in the Fire country, two men in their capes and hoods, covered so well that no one could recognize them, lay down in order to go to sleep. The shorter one looked up at the taller one and said,

"I feel something wrong in the air," the taller one looked at him and said, "Well then we'll just have to wait for tomorrow to see, but don't worry, we will be home soon and you're going to have to make a big impact when you arrive, can you at least do that?" The shorter one smiled giving a huge toothy grin before replying, "Of course I can, you know me, I'll give them the entrance, they will never forget."

A/N: So was it good? Is there an improvement? Just to clarify the results of certain previous battles were altered to fit this story. Please read and review, I love reviews, the good, the bad, and the ugly ones. So don't hesitate to speak your mind.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, I know this chapter is short, but the next one is going to be worth it, I hope. I just want to clarify something about this story, there is no good and bad per say, everyone has different goals and some goals clash with each other which causes conflicts. It's complicated but later on it will make sense.

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As the sun rose on the fated morning, Sakura lay in her bed staring at the ceiling in her room; pondering over what was to come during that day. The Death Wind or so his name was, was coming today to Konoha. They were to show to him their strength as a nation. However, it would not be the Konoha regular shinobi that would deal with it, but rather it would be Danzo's Anbu Roots called Ne'. Only five regular shinobis would be there to serve as backup of which Sakura was included. She really wanted to know who this person was; The Death Wind supposedly was the most powerful Wind user ever to come in the ninja world. According to Ino and her gossip, the Mizukage and Tsuchikage both were terrified of him. He defeated Itachi! Not even Kakashi-Sensei or Konohamaru was able to do that! He was to arrive in the midday near the South Western gate. There would be an open area in which he would enter and they would surround him with 12 of the Ne'. Tsunade and Danzo will both be present watching. Sakura got up stared at the mirror before saying,

"Today's a big day Sakura, you better be prepared." And with that she got into the shower in order to get ready.

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It was close to midday and the sun was sweltering hot, the five backup shinobi selected by Tsunade were all waiting outside in front of the gates. They were the last line of defence just in case the 12 Ne' failed. The first to arrive was Neji, dressed in his white top with baggy sleeves that covered his hands along with his white pants. His byakugan was turned off, and his eyes were shut. For those who did not know him, it seemed like he was uninterested in the world around him and was probably sleeping. However Neji could have mentioned all the details in the area, around the area, behind the area, and even under him, nothing ever escaped his eye. The next to show was Shino, very quiet, he was dressed in layers with a grey jacket with a hood that covered his hair and the collar that covered half his face leaving only his sunglasses visible, he wore a black pants with bandages on both sides of his thighs. Next to appear was Chouji, in his red armour he was munching happily on a bag of chips. Though he wasn't as fat as he was before, he still was big but all that was hundred percent pure hard muscles. Next to come right after him was Shikamaru, dressed in the standard Jounin outfit, smoking a cigarette he took a long drag before muttering to himself, "Man why am I even here, this job is so troublesome."

Sakura was last to appear, she was in her standard pink and beige outfit. However this time she was wearing black combat gloves. She looked at the rest of them, smiling and called out,

"How is everybody?" Unfortunately, the only one to actually respond was Chouji, who waved and said, "I'm fine."

The rest completely ignored her, Neji had his eyes closed and was meditating, Shino was staring at a bug on his hand and Shikamaru was lying on the ground staring at the clouds while still smoking a cigarette. Normally Sakura would've felt annoyed and possibly would have thrown a punch to the nearest person, i.e. Shikamaru. However today was not that type of day. Everybody was concerned about the upcoming problem. After a few moments Tsunade and Danzo both appeared on the gate while waiting, for it would be only a matter of time before the enemy showed up. Sakura stared out into the front of her as if she could almost feel the two men coming. She knew that there were 12 Ne' Roots positioned strategically all around the area so that, once the enemies entered, they could not escape. Then all of a sudden, Sakura felt that, two chakra signatures, for some odd reason, they felt strange, yet vaguely familiar. She could not put her finger on it, but she knew that she had met this person before. In any case it would be a few moments before they knew who actually it was.

********************************

The Roots Ne' lay tense. Any moment now he would appear, just then they heard a rustling of leaves, and then there they walked, the two of them in the middle of the open-area staring at the gates of Konoha. Now was the time to attack, so appearing from the hiding spots they surrounded them.

The Death Wind, stared out into the forest in front of them, he felt it, directly in front of them, stood some individuals. There were twelve of them, wait, there were a few more, ten more to be exact, all of which who had hostile chakra's. However there were also five additional chakras that were familiar to him; it was confusing, how could it be that those five be with these twenty two? He looked up at his sensei said,

"What should we do?" the teacher looked down upon and said, "Don't worry, they shouldn't be a problem,"

Death Wind then nodded. After a few moments walking he had reached the end of the forest and the beginning of an open space in which there was the gate to Konoha, he could see five individuals standing there in front of the gate, two more on top. And finally 12 of them all uselessly surrounding the area trying to contain him as if that were even possible. He then walked out into the open space, but before he could say anything, The Death Wind and his teacher were surrounded by the twelve of Ne'. The Death Wind looked at his teacher who shrugged his shoulders; he then turned to the lady on top of the gate and screamed out,

"I KNOW IT BEEN TEN YEARS, BUT IS THIS THE TYPE OF RECEPTION I DESERVE TSUNADE-BAACHAN!?"

Tsunade was shocked; the only person to ever call her that was someone that was missing from her village ten years ago. She jumped down from the gate along with Danzo approached and then softly asked,

"Is that really you Naruto?"

Naruto pulled off his hood to reveal his whiskers marks, blue eyes, flashy yellow hair, and his traditional wide foxy grin. Tsunade was about to turn towards Danzo and asked him what exactly was he doing, but just as she was about to move she felt a kunai to her throat; Danzo had appeared behind her and put a kunai there. When she had turned to see the five Shinobi she chose each of them had two of the Roots ANBU with swords to their throats. She turned back to Naruto, and Jiraiya, who had just decided to take off his hood. She saw that they were each surrounded by at least six of the Roots members. She growled at Danzo,

"What exactly is the meaning of this Danzo?"

Danzo calmly replied, "I knew that the Death Wind, was none other than Uzumaki Naruto, therefore I made this plan so that I could kill him, kill Jiraiya, kill these five Shinobi, and finally kill you along with the majority of the council, to take over the position of Hokage with zero resistance from the rest of them. After all to the world, it would be the Death Wind who killed you all before he was defeated by me. The council made a foolish mistake trusting me, and for that, all of you pay. Konoha has become weak, they need a strong leader, a leader that can take them to war and win. Shinobis were not made for peace, they were made for war, and for that reason I will bring Konoha to glory and none of you can stop me."

Naruto just stared at Danzo before calmly asking him, "And how do you plan on killing Tsunade-Baachan?"

Danzo looked at him and said, "Like this…"

SLAM!!!

"Like how again?" hissed Naruto, in a split second; he went from being surrounded to choking Danzo against the walls of Konoha. "I don't think you realize who you are up against" Naruto whispered. He then felt the cold metal of a sword to his throat, he turned to see a short Ne' member

"Get away from Danzo-sama or I'll chop your head off."

Naruto looked at Danzo before turning back to the ninja and said, "I wonder how easy it is to chop someone's head off if you don't have hands to do it."

The ANBU boy looked down, and instead of seeing his hands he saw two bloody stumps. He turned to the others, but to their shock and everyone else, they were all left without hands. They all screamed because of the pain and fled.

Naruto then turned towards Danzo, he stared at intently gazing into his dark eye he then quietly asked him, "Was it you the last time?"

Danzo gave a sinister smile before replying, "Who else could it have been?"

Naruto then turned towards Tsunade and said, "Old hag, I don't know what the rules are now in Konoha but I don't mind paying the price for killing this man."

Naruto then did a one hand seal, and with that Danzo started choke, and then all of a sudden his body went limp. Naruto dropped him, he turned to Tsunade and said, "And if you don't mind, I'm going to take the pain away of those others." He did another one hand seal and all of a sudden it was a huge cry of pain by the NE' in the distance and then the forest went silent.

Tsunade stared at Naruto, completely shocked that this man at the age of around 22 was the same boy who had left this village. Though he still maintained a slight boyish image, he was lethal. He mercilessly killed those Ne' and Danzo without breaking a sweat. How far has he matured? His physical aspect sure did mature. For one thing, his whole clothing attire was different, it was manlier. She turned towards her former team mate Jiraiya, he looked the same. He was wearing the same old hermit clothes and still carried the same perverted thoughts. She turned to him and asked, "How much?"

Jiraiya smiled, "If you mean by his progress, then he is strong, very strong, maybe he could give his father a run for his money."

Tsunade then replied, "Is he stronger than you?"

Jiraiya paused before replying, "Even though I have years of experience over him, he is much more skilled than I am, we sparred many times, however ever since I showed him my master technique he is something crazy."

They both then turned to Naruto who was at that moment about to approach them, "But you know what?" Jiraiya continued, "There are still people out there who are stronger, and he knows that. That is why he won't stop training till he beats them."

Tsunade nodded before addressing both of them, "Welcome home you guys, welcome home."

To this Naruto grinned and said, "You know Ero-Sennin, this wasn't the entrance I had planned, but you know what? I don't mind it at all."

Sakura was shocked. Her mind wasn't even functioning properly. Here in front of her, The Death Wind was none other than the team-mate who was supposed to be dead according to the peddler. And yet here he was, Naruto, looking so much more different than he was before. He was wearing black pants which had orange and white bandages around his shins; he had a black T-shirt with fishnet on his forearms that was also bandaged in red and white. He had a black headband, which had thick orange thread that had the Konoha leaf, sewn into it. His rugged face, still maintained some of the boyish features she remembered. The whisker marks were slightly faded and his eyes were no longer shallow blue like a pond, instead, it was deep blue like the ocean, where one could lose themselves in the experiences that he went through. If it was one-way to describe him it would be rugged beauty. It wasn't his looks that shocked Sakura, it was his character. Though he still retained that same foxy grin, when he saw Tsunade-Sama in danger, his eyes changed immediately and he retained a very serious and dangerous character. And what speed! Sakura could not even keep up with his movements; she didn't even know how he cut the hands-off those roots Shinobi. She turned towards Neji and Shino, and realized that they too, were unable to keep up with him. Chouji mutter to himself, "When the hell did he cut those guys, and how the hell did he do it?"

Sakura shook her head, she had no idea. All she knew that her team-mate was back. And he came back stronger than ever. As they all got ready to leave, Sakura walked up to Naruto looked up at him and said, "It's been a while Naruto."

Naruto stared at her, _'Holy smokes! This is Sakura'_; he always knew that she would grow up to become someone pretty, but this was something else. Her eyes gave the sense of rose like characteristics; it's beautiful but if picked the wrong way, you get pricked by the thorns; he didn't even know how to respond to her. He scratched the back of his head smiled and said, "Yeah it has been a while, but I'm back."

He looked down at her and saw that she had water in her eyes. He put his hands in the air and asked, "What's wrong Sakura-Chan?"

Then all of a sudden, Sakura cocked her hand back and launched a chakra enhanced punch which sent Naruto crashing into the Konoha gate. She then grabbed him by the collar and continued to shake him violently while repeatedly screaming,

"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU THESE LAST SEVEN YEARS SHANNARO!!!"

Jiraiya just stared, he turned to Tsunade and said, "I just thought she inherited just beauty from you not that freakish strength, she is CRAZY!" Naruto was completely dazed, _'Handling those Danzo dudes was much easier than handling Sakura-Chan,'_ he thought.

After a moment when Sakura had stopped rattling Naruto, she helped him up. Naruto when he saw this expected another punch, instead Sakura wrapped her arms around Naruto before whispering to him, "Welcome home Naruto, welcome home." Naruto didn't know how to react he turned to Jiraiya who just nodded, he then slowly, out of fear of another punch, put his hands around her. When he realized that nothing was going to happen he smiled, _'Yup, it's great to be back home.'_

"Man that was troublesome."

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A/N: So was it good? I was nervous about getting the entrance right, I just wanted to make it natural and not too much drama, anyhow the reviews will tell me how good it actually was. Next chapter will be long I promise, Just for a sneak peak, Tsunade will test Naruto in the next chapter in a highly anticipated match against some very interesting opponents so stay tuned. By the way like I mentioned,though I am a fan of it, this is not a NaruSaku pairing, I already decided who Naruto is going to be with _in the end_. But it takes time to get there. Please Review Thanks


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